Velvet #1Review

Reading Velvet #1, by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Steve Epting, is like eating the world's richest multi-layered dessert. It's a symphony of flavor, so rich and satisfying that you never want it to end. To say that the spy genre is overdone is about as obvious as calling the sky blue, but Brubaker and Epting bestow upon Velvet a welcome freshness. The eponymous hero is so nuanced and sophisticated as a character that it's surprising to believe her level of complexity was achieved in a single issue.

There's a definite element of subversion in the book's opening. In a typically male-dominated genre such as this, female characters are often viewed through a hyper-masculine lens that lens to strip them of all dimensions but one. We see them through the eye's of the male hero, so that our perception of them is defined and limited by that filter. Velvet's opening flirts with that idea before ultimately (and quite literally) shooting it in the head. Our first glimpse of Velvet is a description provided by a former lover of hers, who was reminiscing about her with a group of men she's also slept with. But Brubaker and Epting are very clear about who the hero of their story is as a series of untimely death's turns Velvet's intelligence agency on its head and paints a target on her back.

Velvet Templeton is no Bond girl, nor is she a feminized Bond. She is a complicated, conflicted character with an espionage skill set that's gone somewhat rusty with disuse but is no less impressive. Epting's art brings Velvet and her surroundings to life; the combination of his masterful framing and Elizabeth Breitweiser's atmospheric colors lend a cinematic quality to the book's art. The story's visual and textual elements combine to create something truly unique, and Velvet is a series not to be missed.

Melissa Grey is a lover of all things cats, comics, and outer space. She can be found on MyIGN at MelissaGrey or lurking on Twitter @meligrey.